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Microsoft, Apple Strengthen Partnership

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

January 10, 2006, 6:43 PM

Microsoft Tuesday reaffirmed its commitment to the Mac platform, announcing an agreement with Apple to produce Office for Mac for a minimum of five years. The company also said it plans to make improvements to Entourage 2004 for Mac, as well as build converters to read Microsoft's Open XML format.

"The Mac platform has never been stronger, and we're pleased that Microsoft is committed to delivering great Mac products for many years to come," Apple's vice president of marketing Philip Schiller said in a statement.

The Macintosh Business Unit has been a part of Microsoft for the past two decades. While some may view the two as bitter rivals, it was Microsoft that saved Apple upon Steve Jobs' return in the late 1990s after the company nearly collapsed due to mismanagement and slow computer sales.

Several Entourage 2004 enhancements are on tap to be released in March, including Sync Services integration and support for Spotlight searching. Plans are also in the works for enhancements involving Smart Card technology.

Messenger for Mac will also receive an upgrade in the near future, with 5.1 allowing for the secure transfer of files to external contacts. Also, the new version will interact better with Office Live Communications Server and feature improved saving of chats.

Finally, the Mac BU has committed itself to cross-platform compatibility of its products. A converter will be made available that would allow users to read Microsoft's upcoming Office Open XML format after version 12 of Office for Windows is released.

"Microsoft has a history of successful collaboration with Apple, and this agreement underscores our commitment to the Mac platform," Microsoft consumer productivity experience vice president Tom Gibbons said. "We've had many years of success with Office for Mac, and this formal commitment confirms that we're in the Mac business for the long haul."

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By Techslacker

edited Jan 11, 2006 - 9:45 PM

Only folks on the outside looking in think that MS saved Apple.

Gil Amelio had been Apple's CEO and, yes, he nearly drove Apple into the ground. The thing is that he did have special bonuses he was allotted that if he had the company in good shape to be sold, he would be rewarded.

Before Jobs took back over though Amelio's crew had uncovered about 2 billion dollars worth(by his estimate) of patent violations by MS that they had stolen from Apple. Jobs came in and recognized that a court battle would not be kind to either company. He knew that at that time Apple needed MS more for their Office product so he got them to guarantee Office development would be there for x number of years and then MS also invested 150 million dollars into Apple stock. Also the Mac development team was jacked up to be the largest Mac development team outside of Apple. Not sure that's still the case but at the time it was said to be.

The stock purchase had nothing to do with keeping Apple afloat as Apple already had 2 billion dollars in the bank. It was more about a show of confidence. Basically a marketing ploy. So we had Office sticking around and someone as big as MS investing in Apple's future.

The rest is history. For awhile there it looked like Apple would not need MS as much as they did but now that Apple has begun to make some inroads into businesses the game has changed once more.

All in all MS really didn't save Apple. They were forced into it. Some think that they did this because of the justice dept breathing down their neck at the time but in truth I don't buy that as Apple had shot themselves in the foot so many times that it wouldn't be hard to prove MS had little to do with Apple being forced out of business. MS would have loved to see Apple disappear into the wind.

Apple does well now so why does MS still stay involved. That's exactly why. Now that Apple is doing well and it's a known fact that the Mac development team is very profitable for them, it would reek of them trying to sabotage Apple if they stopped development. Again they're forced into it but the plus side is that it is a profitable division for them. There is no competition for them in the Mac market for Office.

Score: 0

By Gerwin

posted Jan 12, 2006 - 7:42 AM

Windows is bad, OSX is good. Now go away.

Score: 0

By webbyz

edited Jan 11, 2006 - 1:39 AM

Whats about Windows Media Player? They are far behind in development of WMP for Mac users. If Microsoft want to dominate WMV technology everywhere so make sure every computer work well with WMP equally!

Score: 0

By Floodland

posted Jan 10, 2006 - 10:18 PM

Now Microsoft should announce when their applications for Mac OS will work at least, usable.
(I really wanted to mean stable, but don't want jokes back.)

Score: 0

By fyrewalll

edited Jan 10, 2006 - 10:46 PM

Have you tried Entourage 2004 w/ SP2 installed? SP2 really made Entourage a pretty good Exchange client.

Score: 0

By Floodland

posted Jan 11, 2006 - 10:18 AM

Entourage SP2 fixes some important problems with entourage-exchange. But ussually break databases. No fix is good if you have no mail left to read. SP2 also break powerpoint 2004 badly. Presentations now dissapears leaving no traces after powerpoint "quiting"..

Score: 0

By phill666

posted Jan 10, 2006 - 7:03 PM

>>>While some may view the two as bitter rivals, it was Microsoft that saved Apple upon Steve Jobs' return in the late 1990s after the company nearly collapsed due to mismanagement and slow computer sales.>>>

I don't think the reasons behind MS helping apple there is as nice as that makes it sound. I think it was less of an "Aww we need to help them" and more of a "hmm, how would that be bad for us"

*note, Im not hating:P on MS, Im just saying

Score: 0

By nikkos1979

posted Jan 11, 2006 - 4:44 PM

I would bet that Apple is paying MS a bunch of money to develop the software. Would anybody buy a Mac if they couldn't open a MS word doc? Doubt it. Intuit the makers of Quicken get paid a fortune to produce Quicken on the Mac.

Score: 0

By Mandeep

posted Jan 10, 2006 - 7:20 PM

of course, thats how businesses work. whats best for business

Score: 0

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